Leicester City will hope to avoid an EFL Cup giant-killing when they host Newport County at the King Power Stadium in the third round on Tuesday.
The Foxes needed penalty kicks to beat Stockport County in round two, while their fourth-tier hosts beat Luton Town and Portsmouth to get this far.
Prior to witnessing his Everton side suffer a 2-0 defeat at Goodison Park, Frank Lampard insisted that he was not surprised at Leicester’s recent revival, with Brendan Rodgers managing to turn his side’s fortunes around after a dire start to the season.
A Youri Tielemans thunderbolt and a well-taken Harvey Barnes strike sealed a deserved win for the Foxes on Merseyside, one which lifts them all the way up to 14th in the standings, and it now feels like an age ago that Leicester was rooted to the bottom of the table.
Rodgers’s attention now turns to the EFL Cup, which Leicester have won three times down the years – most recently in the 1999-00 campaign by beating Tranmere Rovers 2-1 in the final – and deep runs in the tournament are not unfamiliar to the hosts, but they could only beat Stockport County 3-1 on penalties after a 0-0 draw in round two.
Indeed, Leicester made it all the way to the quarter-finals last year before being knocked out on penalties by eventual champions Liverpool, and they have managed to reach the last eight in four of the last five editions of the tournament, the outlier being a third-round exit to Arsenal in 2020-21.
Heading into Tuesday’s game, Leicester’s only defeat from their last five has been against Premier League champions Manchester City, and that wonder strike from Kevin De Bruyne represents the only goal that Leicester have conceded in their last 450 minutes of football.
A second successive cup fixture awaits Newport County this week, as the League Two side took to the field against Colchester United in the first round of the FA Cup and extended their unbeaten run to five matches with a 2-0 success on home soil.
Kieran O’Hara’s own goal and a second-half strike from Aaron Lewis ensured that Newport’s name would be in the hat for the second-round draw, and a pair of 3-2 wins over Luton and Portsmouth have allowed Graham Coughlan’s side to set up a third-round EFL Cup tie versus Premier League opposition.
The 2022-23 campaign marks only the second time that Newport County have got as far as the third round, with the visitors achieving their best-ever run in 2020-21 – a fourth-round exit to Newcastle United – but they were demolished 8-0 by Southampton in the second round last season.
While Leicester has enjoyed a major upturn in fortunes, Coughlan has now overseen a five-game unbeaten run in all tournaments for the Ironsides, but they have failed to win any of their last four away games – not a good omen before visiting the King Power.
However, Newport County stunned the footballing landscape with a 2-1 victory over Leicester in the third round of the 2018-19 FA Cup – the first competitive meeting between the two sides since 1947 – with the Foxes previously winning three in a row against their Welsh counterparts.
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Team News
Leicester’s injury list has not changed much over the past couple of weeks, with Ryan Bertrand (knee) and Ricardo Pereira (Achilles) still out for the long term, while Jonny Evans was not quite ready to return from his calf problem at the weekend.
While Rodgers will be determined to see his side maintain their momentum, a wealth of changes can be expected nonetheless, starting with Daniel Iversen enjoying a rare outing in goal over the improving Danny Ward.
Luke Thomas, Jannik Vestergaard, Caglar Soyuncu, Marc Albrighton, and Ayoze Perez should also be handed opportunities to impress, while Dennis Praet could also be brought back in from the cold.
As for Newport County, striker Offrande Zanzala has suffered a setback in his recovery from a hamstring problem and is not expected to feature here, but the visitors picked up no fresh concerns against Colchester.
Coughlan set up in a defense-heavy 3-5-2 formation for the FA Cup and should not be averse to deploying a similar system here, but tired legs may come into play for a side who have barely rotated at all in recent weeks.
Aaron Lewis could certainly push Cameron Norman for a start on the right-hand side following his goal at the weekend, but Liverpool loanee Adam Lewis may also feel that his spot is at risk after being taken off for his fellow defender before the hour mark in that game.
Declan Drysdale and Robbie Willmott were cautioned for the second time in the tournament against Portsmouth, and both players will serve one-game suspensions here.
Leicester City’s possible starting lineup:
Iversen; Castagne, Soyuncu, Vestergaard, Thomas; Mendy, Praet; Albrighton, Dewsbury-Hall, Perez; Iheanacho
Newport County possible starting lineup:
Day; Clarke, Demetriou, Farquharson; Norman, Bennett, Moriah-Welsh, Dolan, Aaron Lewis; Bogle, Evans
We say: Leicester City 4-0 Newport County
As impressive as Newport has been on home soil recently, winning away from home has not been so simple for the League Two side, who should not expect miracles at the King Power.
Leicester will certainly not field a full-strength XI, but with the form on their side and an impeccable defensive record to boast about, we expect the Foxes to cruise through to round four.
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